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Right to Death?

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Getting some hard-hitting topics now that Warbler has returned.  The Politics thread has has seen a resurgence, and the Polanski thread has people debating the justification of the death penalty.  So, yeah, here's mine, based on a glimmer of an idea from a post of Bingowings in the Polanski thread.  Should people be allowed to make their own choices of whether or not they are allowed to die?  And not just in the case of those who are terminally ill, but simply people who are extremely unhappy and simply want to kill themselves.  I'm probably a tiny minority on this, but I think they should be allowed to.  Seriously.  Apparently the reigning psychiatric mood is that any person who wants to commit suicide has a mental illness because only mentally ill people would want to end their own lives.  I don't agree with this.  I agree that people who want to kill themselves might be mentally ill and need help, but I am upset that this is the only conclusion.  I do agree that, just like the death penalty, it is better to err on the side of caution, though.  Well, anyway, I would like to open this up for debate or just thoughts.  I understand that this is a potentially inflamatory topic, so hopefully this can be spoken of in a mature fashion.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I am actually in agreement with this. If I want to die, who is to tell me I am not allowed to? It should be my choice. And honestly, if I were to earnestly want to die right now, there are countless ways I could make that happen, and there is nothing any laws could do to stop me. So in reality, we all do have the right to die, I guess the right that is being faught for is the right to do it comfortably and without the stress of having to do it yourself.

My biggest concern would be that most people who earnestly want to commit suicide are in some state of depression, and depressed people tend not to think through things clearly. The reality is, once this person endures past the hard times they are going through, they will very likely reach a point where they will look back and say, "Gee, I am glad I didn't kill myself". You'll often find this attitude among survivors of suicide attempts. Often times after the drama of a failed suicide they will wake up and realize that they can work through things. I certainly feel it is far better to try to help people through these hard times, rather than to help them kill themselves.

Suicide can also be a very selfish act. When of my neighbors when I was a kid, a forty year old mamma's boy apparently, couldn't cope with the death of his mother so he shot himself (at least that is the story the family told, likely there were other family problems), leaving a lovely mess for his wife to find and three young boys to grow up without a dad. Pretty selfish if you ask me. People who use suicide as a means of escaping their responsibilities are pretty lousy people IMHO, or if they let down people who are counting on them. I have no sympathy for such cowards. But some people genuinely have it rough and really have no quality of life to speak of, despite the fact that they are perfectly healthy.

 

Just to offer a little example for consideration: One older fellow I help out on occasion is in his sixties. He had a lot of problems with drugs when he was younger and really messed up his life. He treated his family awful, and now his wife and kids really don't care a whole lot for him and cringe whenever he is around, even though his drug problems are far behind him, they have a hard time getting past all the times he screwed them over in the past. He is a lonely old man whose closest friend is his dog. He often talks to me about his past, perhaps because he has a lot he needs to get off his chest, and usually after 20 minutes or so of revisiting stories from his past, he begins tearing up and makes some excuse for needing to leave the room. He is very lonely, eccentric, miserable, and constantly suffers from his past.

There are a lot of people in situations like this, who feel very miserable, and literally have no family or real friends. If they decided, after years of living this way, that they'd rather just give it up, I think they ought to have the right. Personally, I'd tell them to simply pack up and move and try to find something more interesting and new to experience in life, rather than just ending it. But if they are truly ready after long hard consideration to hit the off switch, who am I, or any one else, to tell them that it is not allowed?

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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the question is, are we dealing a totally sane person who is fully capable of rational thought and fully capable of his/her own decisions, or are we dealing with who is insane and not in full control of his mental faculties?    If the person is sane, I say let him/her make their own decisions.   If the person is not sane or not rational,  then I think would be wrong to stand by and do nothing while he/she kills  him/herself.    Also anyone under the age of 18 should not be able to kill themselves.   If they cannot vote, sue, drink legally, consent to sex,  they should not have the right to decide to kill themselves. 

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I agree that if our lives belong to ourselves (a fundamental idea in Western thought) then what greater right do we have than to end that life if we so chose?

This is especially troubling in the case of terminally ill patients who, be being hospitalized, may not have it in their power to end their lives. I can see how difficult this is morally for doctors, but I think that someone on a lifesupport regime should, after a couple of meetings with a councelor, be given some means to end their own life, doctor assisted if necessary.

In the case of people in vegatative states, when the choice is made by family to end their life, the person in question suffocates or starves... perhaps two of the most unpleasent ways to die. Wouldn't it be more humane and respectful to end that life by a doctor painlessly and quickly?

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I have no problem with a person who wants to kill themselves, I just wished they all would do it right and cleanly, it would make my job easier. And to be clear, just because some asshole gets taken away because he is suicidal, that doesn't mean he is actually suicidal, I deal many of these morons and they simply attention or free bed and food. The ones who actually wanted to kill themselves did without getting me involved until their dead body is discovered.